Editing software question

I know there are many threads on this topic and a variety of opinions. After reading for hours over many weeks I am still undecided, probably because my lack of computer knowledge. I have a Canon T2i and a MacBook Pro which is new. I am a very amateur photographer but feel I am picky about how photos look. I want to do more than the basics, but realistically it will be awhile. My knowledge and time are very limited. Right now I would be happy to get my photos somewhere besides my camera. Should I go with the Canon Software, the apple photos program on the computer or Photoshop Elements? I mainly do nature, wildlife, and trip photography for my own pleasure. Someday want to do layers and HDR but need to learn the basics. Please someone choose for me so I can move on. Lol. Do either of these let you save the original while you play with editing?

Adobe Lightroom is probably the most popular but there are people who use other programs. You'll find the most support, knowledge, tutorials, etc. for Lightroom (and Photoshop) due to their popularity.

The advantage to Lightroom is that it's primarily meant as a digital asset management system (most programs edit images one-at-a-time... digital asset management software manages ALL your images ... it keeps them organized, searchable, lets you "rank" your images so it's easy to find your best examples, etc. and curate your collections.) It also allows you to "sync" edits (e.g. if I shot dozens of images in the same light conditions, it would be time consuming to white-balance each image one-at-a-time... but with Lightroom you can adjust just one image, and then 'sync' the adjustment to the rest of them. This REALLY speeds up the workflow.

The downside to Adobe is that they no longer "sell" software... they "rent" it. They'll show you the monthly price for the Lightroom/Photoshop combo is $10/month... but it's really $120/year because they wont rent it for just one month (they let you make $10 monthly payments on the $120 annual subscription ... but it's not like you could subscribe for just one month and cancel... they wont let you do that.)

There are a lot of people who aren't interested in pay $10/month unless they think they're going to use it enough to justify the annual cost.

I've been waiting for Luminar (by Skylum) to release their digital asset management (promised to be out this year ... you can get Luminar now, but it doesn't have digital asset management yet). Mostly I'm interested to see how it compares to Lightroom.

I previously used Apple's Aperture ... and found Aperture did a better job on the digital asset management aspect. Unfortunately Apple cancelled the product so if you don't already own it, you can't get it. Since that time, I haven't really found much else that does a good job in this area other than Lightroom... but that requires the annual subscription commitment. Luminar is a traditional purchase model (not a subscription) so it would potentially save a lot of money IF the software can deliver on its promise.

I have LightRoom and On1. LR is a subscription based product and you have both LightRoom CC Classic and Photoshop for one monthly fee. On1 is the traditional purchase, but they have big updates each year at around $80 each time so either program comes out close in annual cost. Both of these programs (and the more expensive Capture One) are the current set of programs that include the digital asset management features that can help you later find your images.

LightRoom CC Classic is my recommendation - there is already a lot of good information available on making the best use of the program. On1 is improving and you can find most of the training you need right on their website.

Thanks you all! I do have a plan now. I just looked and the Community College has an intro to Photoshop soon. I will contact the photographer to see if he uses LR as well. And to ask for more details. I think for now I will use Canon since all of my current photos are JPEG. Then I'll advance to RAW and if I'm doing enough photos-get LR. He has a class ahead of that for basic photography. I have already been to one, so will get a feel if it's too basic. Thanks!